I count myself blessed to know that I look back at my three years at uni without many regrets. There were ups and downs but both were character defining and have shaped me into the person I am today.

There is probably only one thing I would go back and change: my attitude toward my time.

It would not be uncommon at the end of a week to hear me complaining that I didn’t have enough time. I was utterly convinced that there just wasn’t time in the day for everything I needed to be doing. Yet, I had time to watch four or five episodes of 24 in a day.

At uni, I had more time available than ever before and ever since, but I didn’t know how to manage it. I invested in many great habits during my three years in Leeds, great rhythms that have stood me in great stead for the rest of my life so far. I starting giving regularly, I started meeting with a mentor regularly, but I didn’t learn how to create a good rhythm with my time.

Investing in good patterns with our time will change our understanding of what is possible and what is valuable. It will help make good decisions about where we want to give our time. It will stir us to invest our time well, into stuff that really matters, things that will result in lasting change. Ultimately it helps us be intentional about our week, rather than accidental.

I heard people say similar things about managing time at uni and if I’m honest, I thought it was boring. Looking back, I can see the missed opportunities.

Friends at uni had time to volunteer in the church soup kitchen or spend the summer travelling overseas, not because they had more hours in the day, but because they thought it important enough to make time for. They invested in life defining experiences, got stuck in with the real world and I am proud of them and hold them up as brilliant examples.

You have time. If you’ve always wanted to volunteer in your community, do it! If you want to give more time to your degree, do it! If you want to travel overseas, go now! Time is a gift from God for us to use for His glory.

If you’re keen to travel overseas with Tearfund, ICS is a brand new summer programme that is part-government funded. For the next two years, you can travel, meet new people and see the global church in action for just £800 (all included) for 10 weeks in your summer holidays. Click here for more info.